Missed Moments In Time
by AliyahNCIS
Summary: Tag to MIT Part 2. Currently only a one-shot, I don't know yet if I'll be adding other moments from the series that I missed.


_A/N: I've been watching through the series while I work on MIT and realized I missed some great married moments in this episode. Hope this tides you guys over for a bit. Sorry for the delay on MIT. Thanks for everything! :) Love ~Aliyah_

As soon as their boss left the room Ziva smacked her husband. "How could you take that picture in front of Gibbs?!"

Tony grinned unrepentantly. "Hey, I've got a reputation to protect!"

"If you live long enough," she muttered.

"Can I help it if I appreciate good art?"

"You are going to give us away," his wife warned.

Being charming wasn't getting him anywhere today so he met her ire with a quick kiss, which softened Ziva's lips into smile before they jumped apart at Gibbs' impatient bark from the livingroom for them to get their butts in the car.

Tony caught her away from the others following their briefing and pulled her into the copy room, locking the door for good measure. Somehow no one had managed to notice that he'd been in Ziva's personal space while leaning over her desk and hadn't been sent back to his own side of the bullpen with evidence of a paper clip injury, or that Ziva had been smiling a little too indulgently at whatever he'd said before McGee walked in. Not to mention how close they'd been standing in front of the plasma, taking every opportunity to be in contact. Hopefully they could keep it that way.

He cocked one eyebrow. "Exactly whose bed did you think I was waking up in this morning? Because I'm pretty sure it was the right one."

She sighed. "I thought I got that one right. But you did wake up on the wrong side, yes?"

"And whose fault is that?" he demanded, tickling her. "I seem to remember you falling asleep on top of me, not the other way around."

Ziva shrugged. "Small details."

"Minor. Minor details," Tony corrected, enjoying the luxury of a long kiss while they were protected from prying eyes. He slid his hands down her slim waist and nuzzled her neck. "You look gorgeous."

She frowned and scanned her attired. "I am the same as every other day."

He nodded. "I know. And you're gorgeous."

Ziva's confusion morphed into something closer to amazement and she blushed slightly. "Thank you."

It was a sweet victory for Tony when that reaction was hard to come by, though sometimes the simplest things brought colour to her cheeks. He brushed his mouth over hers. "Anytime." He moved back slightly without letting go and studied her. "Seriously though, something about this outfit - that black shirt, your ponytail - I don't know, but it's driving me crazy that I can't touch you."

A coy smile claimed her mouth. "Are you saying I am...distracting Agent DiNozzo?"

Tony glared and pointed at her. "Don't get any ideas minx. I don't need you trying to test my self-control. It's bad enough that I spend fifteen hours a day sitting across the room from you without being allowed to give into any of the urges I have around you." Her eyebrows jumped up and he gave a groan of frustration. "You know what I mean. Please keep in mind that we've only been married for eleven months."

Ziva blinked at him and checked her watch. "How hard did Gibbs hit you this morning?"

He wrinkled his nose. "I do not have a head injury Zi."

She looked at the date again. "Tony," she informed him slowly, "it is February 22, 2008. We have been married for eighteen months."

Tony cupped her face gently, shaking his head slightly. "I can't count the time I was undercover with Jeanne, that wouldn't be fair to you. The time we've been married, when you've had my undivided attention and been loved the way you deserve, can only be measured from right after our wedding and everything since the day after my car blew up and I finally told her the truth."

Her lips caressed his. "Ahava, I do not hold that against you."

"I do," he whispered in her ear. "I always will. You're my heart and soul babe, and you're worth so much more than what I've been able to give."

Ziva shushed him with a finger over his mouth. "Give me forever neshama. That will be more than enough."

Tony smothered her in a kiss that stole both their breaths and covered for tears that would be embarrassing only if someone else caught them. After a few extra moments together regaining their composure the couple parted ways and met back in the bullpen once bathroom mirrors and cold splashes of water had been utilized to hide what they'd spent their stolen time doing, only to grab their gear and make yet another ninety minute drive to Pax River to re-interview people who hadn't wanted to answer their questions the first time.

He called her on smacking his butt with the folder as soon as they were in the car. "Yeah, like that's not giving anything away!"

"Gibbs was not looking," Ziva defended. "I checked." She wove her fingers between his. "You mentioned flirting."

He gave her a quick side glance. "Not exactly something I appreciate watching Zi."

"I am only doing it for the case," she reminded her husband.

"I know." Tony ground the words out, squeezing her hand a little tighter. "I just like it a lot better when you're doing that with me, not a hundred other guys."

"Are you afraid I might get...brushed off my feet?"

"Swept. And no. But this is one of those times I'd give an awful lot for you to be wearing my rings and advertising that you're taken."

"I do not like it any more than you do, especially when tables are reversed." He gave up on the idiom corrections being that this was the third one in as many hours. Ziva looked at the empty spot on her finger. "Except for the case, we would be wearing them from tonight until Monday morning."

Tony kissed the back of her hand. "I'll take Saturday and Sunday if we can wrap this investigation up."

She leaned over and pressed her lips to his cheek. "Me too. I love you."

His grin returned full force. "Right back at you babe. More than you will ever know."

**NCIS**

They were making dinner that night when he turned to her. "How did I not know you are a dog person?"

Ziva shrugged one shoulder. "Perhaps because you never asked."

"It never came up," he pointed out.

"I like dogs."

"That was more than like. You practically took my head off when I didn't show enough compassion to that mutt."

Ziva faced him with an indecipherable expression on her face. "You do not like dogs?"

Tony set down the knife he was using to dice tomatoes. "I guess I've never really had the chance to find out."

"My best friend Arid had a dog when we were young. I loved them both. I could have fun with the two of them, be myself, a task which was often challenging inside the walls of my father's house. Arid's dog was named Rehan, which means king, and he was the last bit of childhood I remember experiencing." The young boy died shortly after her mother passed away and Eli began her training the next day, using her grief as a weapon to incite the passion he need her to display for his cause.

His arms came around her. "Well now I know something new about you. I love you because I will never stop learning things that make me love you even more."

She leaned into his chest. "Do you think you will run out of reasons before ten thousand?"

Tony kissed her temple. "Babe, I think I'll find so many reasons for loving you that ten thousand won't be nearly enough."

For that she opened her heart and poured out all the love it held for him in a charged, poignant caress that ended only because they needed to breathe. If not for that inconveniencing little fact Tony would've not have let her go at all. He never got enough of Ziva being his wife.


End file.
